The invention relates to a method for storing and/or order-picking products and/or product units and/or product unit groups in a storage and/or order-picking installation with a buffer store.
Many documents describe individual elements for the storage and/or order-picking of products in a corresponding installation. For example, WO 2005/077789 A1 is concerned with an automatic warehouse and an automatic vehicle in order to bring products into said automatic warehouse. A lift unit which is arranged on the front side of the warehouse is shown here. The vehicles are also described in more detail. A reference to an overall system with depalletizing device and palletizing device cannot be identified.
Complete logistics systems for products and/or product units are ever more important nowadays. Development leads to ever greater automation in order to relieve personnel from monotonous and unhealthy work, in order to save costs and time and in order to increase the economic efficiency of the systems. Certain product units of identical or unidentical type are typically introduced into the logistics system, which takes place on any transport units. In a logistics system, said transport units are stored, taken apart, sorted and, depending on client requirements, assembled again to form new transport units.
A logistics system of this type is described, for example, in DE 103 13 576 B4. Product units are stored there in a high-bay warehouse and are removed therefrom. Said handling is carried out by automated and computer-controlled storage and retrieval vehicles. The high-bay warehouse is a conventional pallet warehouse, to which a tray warehouse is connected via automated conveyor technology. Product units to be order-picked are stored individually on trays in the tray warehouse. Each tray is therefore loaded with a single packing unit. Said individual packing units are then also handled individually, for which purpose a large amount of time is required, and extensive equipping with apparatuses and a large amount of space are necessary.
By contrast, WO 2007/134841 A1 describes an order-picking installation with a high-bay warehouse, at least one tray warehouse, at least one packing station and at least one dispatch station. In this case, packing units which form an, in particular, complete pallet layer are depalletized in layers from a pallet onto a correspondingly dimensioned tray. Said tray with the entire pallet layer is then brought into a tray warehouse. Depending on the order, corresponding trays are then retrieved and new transport units assembled from the individual product units. This means that a relatively large unit has to be moved and stored, for which purpose considerable space is necessary. Furthermore, at many stations, product carriers which are not completely empty have to be handled and moved to and fro, which signifies a considerable effort. In order to increase the probability of complete emptying of a tray, a plurality of picking orders are combined (batch), which has the consequence that the product units have to be sorted again later into individual orders by complicated technology and sequences.
Furthermore, US 2009/0074545 A1 is concerned with a materials handling system for selecting and combining products in an outgoing container. In this case, autonomous transport vehicles which travel on a rail network are provided. Said vehicles are used to bring the same products from a loading station to a destination station where the products are assembled in an exit container. The travel of each vehicle along the rail network is computer-controlled, and each vehicle contains devices for the automatic loading and unloading of the products.
The object of the present invention is to provide a method and an installation of the above type, of which product units can be handled and dealt with further in a rapid, automated, space-saving and cost-effective manner.